Pound had argued - and Eliot had helped him prove - that a poem could be sustained by memorable moments. Olson proved that it could be sustained by unmemorable ones, provided that the texture of the accumulated jottings avoided the sound of failed poetry.

I try to be specific. One thought at a time. Clear. Articulate. And above all, memorable, if you can be. You'd like to write phrases that people can't forget as soon as they read them.

Humphrey Searle writes music that sounds like the theme from 'Star Wars' played backwards through a washing machine.

Writing is a performance art for me. They're very closely aligned, writing and performing. But I'm a writer, not a performer.

Ban poetry. And make sure that anyone caught reading it is expelled from school. Then it will acquire the glamour.

I taught myself Russian, which was very, very useful, especially for poetry and in fact if you can't read Pushkin in Russian, you're really missing something.

It is a good rule in life to be wary of the company of people who think of themselves in the third person, no matter how well justified they might seem to be in doing so.